Kitty seemed kinda shy. She wasn't quite looking at him, and she stammered a bit before she talked. But she thought physics was a good idea to include in the essay, so he didn't cross anything out that he'd been writing when she arrived. If nothing else, it would add to the length of the essay.

She reciprocated his sharing of his dad's job with the professions of her own parents and Clark couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for her. Neither of those occupations sounded the least bit science-y. She probably never sat out in a field at midnight to learn about the constellations and star systems of the galaxy. Or the aliens that occupied them.

Her next remark identified her as muggle educated if not muggleborn (as there were wizard businessmen, he couldn't definitively rule out half-and-half or even pureblood based on parental occupations). The wizarding grade system didn't have Bs, though, so that much was conclusive. And her remark about the wizarding system was highly suggestive that she was muggleborn herself. "Are your parents both muggles then?" he asked curiously, and then offered, "My dad's a wizard, but he's a muggleborn one, so we live in a muggle neighborhood and I went to a muggle school, and he works for NASA." This was, in Clark's somewhat biased opinion, the coolest thing ever, even if Dad was just a lab scientist and not a real astronaut.

If nothing else, it got Clark reduced rates for Space Camp every summer.

Adding a few more lines to his essay as he finished up his physics reasoning - he was going with the theory that the magic in this charm manifested as a physical force acting on the object that counteracted gravity - Clark continued, a bit more slowly as his attention was divided, "So I'm kinda half-and-half since I know my way around both systems."

His avoidance of the subject of his mother was neither intentional nor evasive. There was just nothing to mention. He knew nothing about her occupation or whether or not she had been a witch. For that matter, he didn't even know her name.

Kitty truly felt bad about startling Clark so badly. Luckily, there did not seem to be any hard feelings, and he was even making jokes about it, so her smile widened a little as she worked. A few... more